Page images
PDF
EPUB

ALCHEMY.

BY MR. E. DAVIES, F.C.S.

THERE is great interest in looking back to the origin and early history of any of the sciences, to the study of which we have devoted ourselves. In the light of present knowledge, we see the errors into which our predecessors fell, sometimes with pity, which might be tinged with contempt, but for the remembrance that we are fallible, and that our speculations and theories may provoke a smile in days to come; and sometimes with admiration for the energy and perseverance which those displayed who laid the foundations on which we have built. Thus the astronomer thinks of the Chaldean shepherds and Eastern sages, who, without optic aids, and in spite of false theories, attained such marvellous acquaintance with the motions of the heavenly bodies. He smiles at Astrology, and rejects much that they held true, but he thoroughly admires their devotion to science, and their unwearied efforts to thread the mighty maze of the universe. The student of natural history by no means expects ever to see all the marvellous creatures which Pliny describes, but he can take a lesson from his life-long research into nature, and like him strive to see all that he can, taking warning from him not to believe all that is told by travellers.

Chemistry presents in the past the same mingling of chaff and wheat which is seen in the gatherings of other sciences, but perhaps it was more loaded with error than any of them. This is due to many causes. One was, doubtless, the difficulty of tracing a substance through the protean

N

changes of colour and other properties which it undergoes in its various combinations. Whilst, in other sciences, the student has to deal with what he sees, the chemist has generally to deal with what he cannot see. Take iron, for example; who would suspect its presence in the ore, or in its salts, until the knowledge was imparted, either by instruction or by patient experiment? Thus the early chemists often only educed, when they thought that they had produced. The waters of certain mines were supposed to have the power of transforming iron into copper. True, the iron disppeared and copper replaced it, and nothing but a power of analysis, which was not then possessed, could explain that the copper was in the original liquid, and that the iron simply took its place in solution. Another source of error was, the mystical phraseology in which the Alchemists chose to conceal, rather than to reveal, their discoveries. Another, and the greatest, was the setting up as their aim an object far in advance of their abilities. The discovery of a means of transmuting base metals into gold, and of a medicine which should cure all diseases and confer immortality, was the object of their fond aspiration, and with their eyes fixed on these delusive phantoms they overlooked the treasures at their feet. These were truly great ideas, but they were beyond their reach, and in striving for them they spent a life of toil, and died in disappointment.

Many of the useful arts depend on chemical processes, in the sense in which we use the word 66 chemical" now. Metallurgy, dyeing, the manufacture of porcelain and glass, were all known in the early ages of the world, and are all chemistry in practice. Had mankind simply gone on accumulating facts, leaving theories alone until a foundation was laid for them, we should have heard nothing of Alchemy. As however, this course was not followed, we find the name of Chemistry, xnua, applied to the art of making gold and

silver in the fifth century, in the earliest work known in which the word occurs. This work, entitled, A Faithful Description of the Sacred and Divine Art of making Gold and Silver, by Zosimus, the Panapolite, carries back the art to a far distant period, for it attributes it to the sons of God mentioned in the 6th chapter of Genesis, who, it states, were angels allured from heaven by the charms of women, to whom they imparted the secret of making precious metals. Suidas, in his Lexicon, written in the eleventh century, says, under the word xnusia, "The preparation of silver and gold. χημεία, The books on it were sought after by Diocletian, and burnt, on account of the new attempts made by the Egyptians against him. He treated them with cruelty and harshness, as he sought out the books written by the ancients, on the chemistry of gold and silver, and burnt them. His object was to prevent the Egyptians from becoming rich by the knowledge of this art, lest, emboldened by abundance of wealth, they might be induced afterwards to resist the Romans." It is, however, doubtful whether Alchemy can claim such high antiquity as this; for the silence of Latin authors, especially Pliny, on the subject, would lead us to believe that it took its rise among the Greeks at a later date. The earliest works on the subject are Greek, and a long list, comprising eighty works, is given in Boerhaave's Chemistry, 1753. Many of these evidently bear feigned names, such as Isis, the prophetess, to her son Horus; Moses, the prophet, on chemical composition; Cleopatra, wife of Ptolemy, to whom are attributed four works. They are supposed to have been principally the works of monks, written between the fifth and eighth centuries. They all mean by chemistry the transmutation of imperfect metals into gold or silver.

From the Greeks it passed to the Arabians, amongst whom it obtained its prefix "Al," and, travelling through Spain, in the eleventh century, began to spread over Europe.

Among the Arabians the most remarkable was Geber, if indeed he be not a myth, as so many of the Alchemists seem to be. He is said to have lived in the eighth century, and was in possession of considerable chemical knowledge. He knew the carbonates of potassium and sodium, saltpetre, alum, sulphate of iron, borax, corrosive sublimate, oxide of mercury, milk of sulphur, and nitrate of silver; also sulphuric, nitric, and acetic acids, and the preparation of caustic soda and sal ammoniac. This is certainly a very respectable list, for that early date. Unfortunately, all that was valuable in his researches he considered as mere accessories to the great object of making gold. It was Geber who first gave rise unwittingly to the view that the same philosopher's stone which would transmute base metals into gold, would also heal all the diseases to which man is subject. In the metaphorical language which he employed, the base metals are leprous men, and gold a healthy one. Gold prepared in a certain way he supposed could change other metals into its own likeness; hence he says, gold thus prepared cures lepra, cures all diseases. This, taken literally, appears to have originated the idea of a universal medicine, which has never since deserted the human mind. From the elixir vitæ to Holloway's pills, there have been constantly offered to the world panaceas for every ill, remedies for every disease.

For four centuries after his death little appears to have been written of importance, but about the thirteenth century several able chemists arose. Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas were among these, but perhaps the most renowned, and to Englishmen the most interesting, was Roger Bacon. Eighteen works by him on Alchemy remain. He was acquainted with gunpowder, though it is not certain that he was an inventor of it. He says, "Mix together saltpetre, luru vopo con utriet, and sulphur, and you will make thunder and light

ning, if you know the manner of mixing them." Here we have an example of the manner in which the Alchemists only gave a half confidence to their readers, and threw a veil of mystery over their processes.

Raymond Lully was a friend of Roger Bacon. In his works, especially the Philosophical and Chemical Experiments, we have a tolerably clear description of the method of making the philosopher's stone; at least, clear for an Alchemist. Like all the processes which I have seen, it is impossible to follow it quite through; there is sure to be some reaction quite contrary to anything in modern chemistry, or else some material is directed to be used under a name which cannot now be identified. The white elixir of Lully seems to consist of a mixture of chloride and nitrate of silver, and of it one ounce is to be added to one ounce of silver and seven ounces of arsenide of copper, and you are to get nine ounces of pure silver. The red elixir for making gold is not so intelligible as the white.

Time would fail to give even a list of Alchemists; their works, for the most part mere tracts, are numbered by thousands, and of most, only the titles now remain. Whether we should be much wiser by studying "Verbum abbreviatum de leone viridi," "Rosa novella," "Flos florum," et id genus omne, may now be doubted. A few words should be said, however, about two alchemists, Basil Valentine and Paracelsus. The former was the first to introduce chemical substances into medicine, and so began the war between the Galenists and the chemists, which raged in the sixteenth century. Medicine was then at a very low ebb; the teaching of Galen and the Arabians, especially of Avicenna, was blindly followed, and bleeding, purging and emetics constituted the routine of medical treatment. The remedies used, drawn from the vegetable and animal kingdoms, were often disgusting and absurd, and generally useless; and thus, when a new school

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »